The Gautam Buddh Nagar district administration has said it will launch a crackdown on real estate defaulters from Friday, noting that over Rs 500 crore are to be recovered from developers against whom the Uttar Pradesh real estate authority has issued notices.
District Magistrate Manish Kumar Verma, who took charge last month, said "munaadi" (beat of drum) will be carried out against the builders over the next two days for the recovery of dues towards the Uttar Pradesh Real Estate Regulatory Authority (UP RERA).
After this, the defaulters would be further "named and shamed" and coercive action -- including attachment and auction of their properties -- will follow in accordance with the law, Mr Verma told reporters.
According to officials, the total amount of dues for which recovery certificates (RCs) have been issued is over Rs 1,700 crore but the "recoverable" amount is Rs 503 crore since seven to eight builders have gone for insolvency through the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT).
"There are over 1,700 RCs and the amount of recoverable dues is more than Rs 500 crore. We are currently not working on the RCs which are under litigation or have been stayed by some court. We have details of all defaulter builders and take action for recovery, starting with 'munaadi' against them," Verma said.
He said the administration has already taken action in some cases, sealed properties of defaulters and will now investigate their cases afresh, attach the properties and auction their assets to recover the dues.
"Our ultimate objective is to swiftly bring back the hard-earned money of the common man which has been stuck with the builder. This whole plan of action is to increase pressure on the defaulters and they return the money of the common man soon," the IAS officer said.
He said there are over 100 builders who are defaulters - 28 in Sadar tehsil and 73 in Dadri tehsil.
In a stern message to defaulters, DM Verma said, "The UP RERA has issued the RCs after due hearings and there is no way to escape it. The district administration appeals the defaulters to return the money of common man or else we are going to take strict action in future." Additional DM (finance and revenue) Vandita Srivastava said these RCs are from UP RERA only and not the local Noida Authority or the Greater Noida Authority.
"Ever since the RERA was formed in May 2018, the district administration has been getting 150 to 200 RCs on an average every month. Till date, the total number of RCs received are 4,571, totaling around Rs 1,728 crore," Vandita Srivastava said.
"Action has been taken on these RCs at the tehsil levels from 2018 to present day, excluding the period of peak COVID-19 pandemic from March 2020 to February 2022 during which no coercive action was taken against builders in compliance with a court order," she said.
Ms Srivastava said that last year the district administration managed to recover over Rs 200 crore of the RERA's RCs from the defaulters, while the overall recoveries done since 2018 is around Rs 365 crore.
During last year, several defaulting builders also reached a settlement with homebuyers in cases totaling an amount of over Rs 344 crore, the ADM said.
"Now we are going to further sharpen our efforts in recovering the dues through this campaign against defaulters," Vandita Srivastava told reporters.
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